Republica Whatever Happened To the Group Behind 'Ready to Go' & 'Drop Dead Gorgeous?'

Republica: Whatever happened to the group behind 'Ready to Go' and 'Drop Dead Gorgeous?'

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The british alternative rock group Republica had a short career and really peaked for only several years in the late 90’s. Formed in the early 90’s the british band’s would refer to themselves as and i quote technopop punk rock. Their 1996 self-titled album sold three million worldwide and produced two colossal hits including Ready To Go) and Drop Dead Gorgeous, but whatever happened to the band that’s what were going to explore in today’s video.

Republica’s roots began with keyboardists Tim Dorney and multi-instrumentallist Andy Todd who according to one interview formed a songwriting partnership after meeting during recording sessions for Soul Family Sensation. Also happening around this time was that Tim Dorney’s other band Flowered Up also disintegrated. Dorney would recall the drug-fuelded implosion of Flowered Up recalling "It all fell to pieces, "We struggled to get people together and we ran out of money. One day the singer, Liam, just walked out and that was it. I haven't spoken to any of them since."

The pair would form what would become Republica at the time. Their influences included New Order and Happy Mondays. Keep in mind, They hadn’t yet come up with the name but they did have an instrumental track called “Out of This World.” . They just needed a vocalist, guitarist and drummer to finish off the track and round out their lineup. Enter vocalist Saffron born Samantha Marie Sprackling who had an English father and half chinese half portuguese mother. She would be born in West Africa as. Her father worked for the british american tobacco company until the biafran war started and her family relocated to Brighton, England.

While living in England, Saffron Her early exposures to music were found 70’s and 80’s era music in new Wave, Goth, and Punk via New Order, Siouxsie & The Banshees, and The Clash. By the late 80’s Saffron would discover acid house music and it would be a blend of her young and older influences that formed her musical style.

Saffron would work as an actress and record with bands including N-Joi singing lead vocals on their 1990 hit Anthem. She would end up joining Dorney and Todd after a mutual friend played her the instrumental track and soon enough she joined the duo. The group would add guitarist Johnny Male and former Bow Wow Wow/Adam Ant drummer Dave Barborossa.

It would be a man named Pete hadfield who was the joint managing director of a label named Deconstruction. Deconstruction was a dance/alternative label affiliated with Sony BMG/RCA. Hadfield offered the band a deal after hearing the track out of this world. Saffron had previously been signed to this label. By Tim Dorney’s own admission he would admit to Future Music how primitive their recording that got them signed saying "It was really basic and the recording wasn't brilliant." By the time Hadfield offered the band a record deal they didn’t even have a name yet.. The band actually delayed signing their record until they came up with the name.By their own admission they tried picking names out of a hat but after that method failed so their manager locked the band in a room until they came up with the name Republica. The group also struggled to name their first album, thus it was self titled.

Blending the styles of 1980s dance and punk scenes. The members of Republica were tired of where mainstream music had gone.with saffron recalling to rhythm and news magazine "It had fragmented into the opposite of everything it was meant to stand for. I grew up in a village near Brighton, which is on the south coast of England. The first band I saw when I was thirteen was The Jam and I loved them. There was a lot of gigs happening in the 80s so I used to go down every weekend and see the Human League or Siouxsie and the Banshees or Blondie. It was a great time."


While some in the media portrayed the band as being part of the dance scene or britpop frontwomen Saffron would tell First Cut Groove We're not part of the scene," "You know, we're not grunge or Britpop or dance act; we're not purists." In a separate interview with billboard Saffron would tell Billboard magazine In England a few years ago dance was very upbeat with all these happy lyrics & basically we were just sick of ihat. Not everything is happy and brilliant. We all have proble